These public Wi-Fi users also buy things over the Internet from the cafe hotspots, with 38% saying they use Wi-Fi to make purchases. They also click on mobile advertising, with nearly 98 % of the mobile device users clicking on ads with either an iPhone or an iPod Touch.

The survey data, compiled by JiWire, a media company that delivers ads to mobile devices, looked at usage trends across 275,000 public Wi-Fi hotspots. JiWire also surveyed 2,057 customers randomly selected at 6,500 cafe locations in the U.S. between April and June.

According to JiWire, 68% of Wi-Fi users at cafes spent more than an hour online, while 56% reported connecting daily or nearly daily. That kind of information is obviously useful to advertisers who are increasingly seeing Wi-Fi usage and mobile devices as important in selling their products, JiWire officials said.

Kevin McKenzie, CEO of JiWire, said in a statement that cafe Wi-Fi users are doing more than checking e-mail, using their connections to research products and buy goods and services, for instance, as well as using social networks when they're out of the home and office. ...continue reading.